I am getting bored with Liu Yu, don't know why. So now, I am using Liu Bei in Dong Zhuo's Rise, 190AD. Usually, I am standing still there, recruiting Cui Yan, Yan Yu, Yan Baihu, and any other officer I can snatch. Getting bored with that pattern, I am doing an experiment.

I sent Jian Yong to Xu Chang. Since Ye and Chen Liu is under the alliance, my Jian Yong is free to roam there. The tricky part is on the intersection between Luo Yang and Chen Liu. If I am getting to near to Luo Yang, Lu Bu will directly march into Jian Yong and smash him to a pulp.

So I micro-managing Jian Yong to move around the mountain between Chen Liu and Xu Chang. Arrived safely into Xu Chang with 2000 soldiers with spears.

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The hardest part is defending the city against Lu Bu and Hua Xiong. So, as soon as I get the city I send peach boys into the Xu Chang, leaving Ping Yuan as it is. I was made a mistake to not maintaining the order in this city when micro-managing Jian Yong, so when I sent the boys to Xu Chang, the order is around 84.

While waiting for the boys to come, I used Jian Yong to search for people around the city. The first recruit is Chen Qun. After that, Guo Jia, Xu Zhu, Xi Zhicai, and Zong Yao. I have just finished the barracks when Lu Bu and Hua Xiong is decided to attack my city! Thousands of army is dispatched from the Hu Lao gate to attack my city. Decided to recruit as much as possible before they are too near to the city, got around 7000 soldiers, but no weapon. Sword, it is!

It was lucky that Lu Bu and Hua Xiong is coming without any deputy, that means they are fairly easy to be perturbed. When they are very near to the city, I dispatched Guo Jia, Xi Zhicai, and Zong Yao, each only brings 500 soldiers and starts doing perturb party. Dispatched Guan Yu with 2000 spearmen and Zhang Fei with 2000 swordsmen.

It was fun, and before I finish both of them, I noticed that Lu Bu's loyalty is only 94 at the end of the month. So I wait for one more week and tried to recruit him. It was a success, and I immediately send Lu Bu to the city to get rewarded heavily. After that, I managed to capture Hua Xiong, and recruit him on the next month.

I imagine Liu Yu isn't fun mainly since he doesn't have any notable generals...and expanding out of the far north is a bit of a connect the dots exercise.

Defending Xuchang from that direction can be a lot of fun with the right setup, it's narrow but not an outright choke point, so you usually get some solid battles out of it. Or can cheese when you have to. Picking up Lu Bu isn't too hard but I am a bit surprised you got Hua Xiong - I guess Dong Zhuo didn't leave enough cash in the gate to pay them?

One thing you have to watch out for in your situation is that your allies will start breaking ties with you if you let relations get low. When an AI force is surrounded by allies, it will annul the alliance with the neighboring force with the lowest relations. Since you moved into Xuchang, that just means that you have more possibilities for annulled alliances. Something to bear in mind.

Zyzyfer wrote:I imagine Liu Yu isn't fun mainly since he doesn't have any notable generals...and expanding out of the far north is a bit of a connect the dots exercise.

exactly this.

Zyzyfer wrote:Defending Xuchang from that direction can be a lot of fun with the right setup, it's narrow but not an outright choke point, so you usually get some solid battles out of it. Or can cheese when you have to. Picking up Lu Bu isn't too hard but I am a bit surprised you got Hua Xiong - I guess Dong Zhuo didn't leave enough cash in the gate to pay them?

No, I captured him and let him contemplate his action in the cell, muahahaha. When I captured him, his loyalty is around 96 too, so I don't have to wait for too long. Around 2 months, I guess, I forgot.

Zyzyfer wrote:One thing you have to watch out for in your situation is that your allies will start breaking ties with you if you let relations get low. When an AI force is surrounded by allies, it will annul the alliance with the neighboring force with the lowest relations. Since you moved into Xuchang, that just means that you have more possibilities for annulled alliances. Something to bear in mind.

Yes, I learned it the hard way. So in the time being, Dong Zhuo captured Ma Teng's territory, thus all of his subordinates is spreading around China. I also managed to conquer Cao Cao in Chen Liu and got all of his good, all around, officers. After Cao Cao, I managed to conquer Luo Yang. Ma Chao happens to arrive at Ye, and with him and Zhao Yun on the city, it was hard for me to NOT try to conquer them. Well, I did conquer them using Guan Yu, Zhang Fei, and Hua Xiong as the main force, and recruit Ma Chao and Zhao Yun. Lu Bu is instructed to guard Luo Yang. I also managed to conquer Ping Yuan shortly after Ye.

I strongly thinking to abandon Ye and Ping Yuan... That way, I can concentrate the 2nd tier generals to defend Xu Chang and Chen Liu, thus giving me that sweet TP for as long as possible, while my 1st tier is wreaking havoc in the western China, conquering Chang An, etc.

ajee wrote:No, I captured him and let him contemplate his action in the cell, muahahaha. When I captured him, his loyalty is around 96 too, so I don't have to wait for too long. Around 2 months, I guess, I forgot.

Right but what I was referencing was how it's possible for generals' loyalty to drop when they are deployed from a gate/port if it has no gold in it. It's not a common problem when the same force that owns the gate owns the connected city...but Dong Zhuo's skill is a bit weird and sometimes causes these hiccups. Because Lu Bu is disloyal but Hua Xiong is not nearly as bad, and for them both to have dropped that much loyalty means either they ran out of gold in the gate to pay them, or the AI rumor-bombed them while you were defending (to your advantage).

It's not really relevant to your game though, I'm just commenting on it, as snagging Lu Bu is a bit expected, Hua Xiong, not so much.

I strongly thinking to abandon Ye and Ping Yuan... That way, I can concentrate the 2nd tier generals to defend Xu Chang and Chen Liu, thus giving me that sweet TP for as long as possible, while my 1st tier is wreaking havoc in the western China, conquering Chang An, etc.

What do you think?

That sounds more like a coalition

The one problem with abandoning Ye and Pingyuan is that you will open up more fronts on Chenliu, both of those cities under AI control will attack Guandu Port, forcing you to possibly have to split your Chenliu forces in half. If you have the officers, I'd hold at least Ye if possible.

The other three make a good defensive set-up, but if you insist on abandoning north of the Huang River, I'd suggest taking out Wan first. That intersection between Wan/Luoyang/Chenliu/Xuchang is a hotbed of activity, but you will totally shut that down by taking Wan. Wan also has good chokepoints so it's easy to defend, and gives you a bit more ammo to bring against Changan.

Another thing to consider if you abandon Ye/Pingyuan is abandoning Chenliu. It is one of the three most heavily defended cities in the game, the other two being Shouchun and Jiangling. If you have enemies, they will attack it. But by this point you would have abandoned 60% of your cities, so even though you will be in a very defensive position by doing that, I still don't recommend it. Personally I would just abandon Pingyuan (it's hard to defend) and hold Ye.